Well hello friends and family. I apologize for my lack of consistency in keeping you posted on my island life in these past few weeks. I am trying to be better, but lately my work has been taking up a lot of my time! Teaching is quite the challenge. But if you're reading this you probably know I enjoy challenges so it suits me well.
This was quite the work week! 1st quarter grades were due Thursday night at 10:00pm. Being the procrastinator I am I got mine done at 10:05pm. It wasn't a huge deadline though so no worries. I spent many long hours (especially Wed. and Thurs. afternoon) finalizing grades and writing rough drafts of comments on my students' progress. Then of course there was the grueling task of writing names, grades, comments, etc. on each of 22 report cards (one of my students transferred a week or so ago). I never realized how hard it is to write with enough force to make the letters go through each of the 5 pages. Teachers do so much thankless work! Wow...my fingers, hand and even elbow were sore. I had to trace everything at least twice. But it felt so good to finally be done. Then we had a half-day Friday (what would we do without them!) and after school I finished ALL my lesson plans and grading for next week. Incredible! This is the first time that has happened. I'll be completely free on Sunday. We're going for another dive and to the bridge to jump off it and play around.
Speaking of diving! We went on a really sweet dive last Sunday. But first let me tell you about Saturday night. There is a lady here named Sylvia whose kids go to our school. She is so hospitable to us girls. She invited us over to make Marshallese plates! It was pouring rain so we got soaked on the way over there, but luckily her house is right outside the school gate. We all sat on the floor and she already had the palm branches ready. You split them down the middle and cut till there's only 5 fronds on each of 2 parts. Then you weave them in and out of each other and tie off the ends. It's pretty neat! I have pictures I'll post on facebook later.
Anyway Sunday we went for another dive and practiced buddy breathing and trading equipment underwater. I'm definitely starting to feel more comfortable with it now, and my ear didn't give me hardly any trouble. We saw tons of jellyfish again, and this time we got to go swim in and around 2 ships! It was so cool. It's such a different world down there.
Anyway it's been a pretty great weekend. We had fairly cool weather (so I'd say it was in the 80s?) so I straightened my hair! I felt sort of nice for once. Haha It's kind of sad I know. I probably already mentioned the time all of us girls put jeans on. It felt so strange...like I actually had legs. I'm so used to wearing skirts now. I thought I'd never say that!
Teaching is going well. I pray every day that my students see Jesus in me...and that maybe they can learn something haha. Really though I feel so unequipped to teach them, plus the fact that we have such limited resources here. We had a copier the first half of the quarter and the last few weeks it's been broken. One is supposed to be in the mail but....you know how it goes. I think God knew exactly what he was doing when he gave me 6th grade. They are such a great class! Definitely rowdy sometimes though. The reason I say that is because all the 7th grade boys are in love with me. One day they threw a rose in my classroom. And the junior boys apparently were chanting my name in the high school halls?? It makes me feel very awkward! haha I must say though I'm getting used to being Miss Ley. It almost seems strange to hear someone call me Nicole! And it's weird if I ever write my name. Just think how many times a college student writes their name in one day....and here I am never writing my name! Instead I've memorized the first and last names of 22 kids.
In closing I just want to say that I've made some really incredible friends here. They make this whole experience that much better. And I'm still loving every last minute of it!
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
island life...
October 7 - People say some hilarious stuff around here. We decided to start putting Post-It's with funny quotes on our wall. A couple of the girls also started a warm fuzzy board in the AV room (our staff lounge basically). It's been a big hit actually. People love it. I hope it keeps going.
October 9 - I held my first party for my class. They get graded on how well they behave each day on a scale of 1 to 10. When they reach 200 they get a party. So after lunch we went in the library and watched Monsters vs. Aliens, and all the kids brought the food for the party. The girls made up plates for everyone with pizza, cookies, chips, popcorn, drinks, etc. Afterwards we went outside and I took pictures with the kids. They can be so rambunctious but I love them so much. I hope I can come back and see them graduate from high school!
October 14 - Shari's 21st birthday. We showered, dressed up and went to Tide Table for dinner. I wished that I could wear jeans so bad! Maybe next time I'll wear them under my skirt haha. After dinner we went to the library and watched Surf's Up. The library has AC so I wore jeans in there. It felt so weird...
October 16 - Ben spoke for vespers and did a really good job. In part of his talk he mentioned how God sees us the way we see our students. We don't give them everything they want or make life easy because we don't love them. We do it because we do love them, and yet sometimes they're so hard headed and they don't understand. Afterwards we had another bonfire. (Yeah I know it's hot what are we thinking.) It felt good because there was a strong breeze and we didn't sit too close. Me and Alise made Damien his first ever s'more! The chocolate was sooo expensive but we decided to splurge.
Last night we went to Sylvia's house and she taught us how to make Marshallese plates out of palm branches. It was so neat! I'll try to post some pictures of it soon.
Thank you for your prayers everyone! The island is amazing and I'm loving every second I have here. It's so bloody hot but I don't even care. I'm having the time of my life.
Isaiah 26:3 - "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You."
October 9 - I held my first party for my class. They get graded on how well they behave each day on a scale of 1 to 10. When they reach 200 they get a party. So after lunch we went in the library and watched Monsters vs. Aliens, and all the kids brought the food for the party. The girls made up plates for everyone with pizza, cookies, chips, popcorn, drinks, etc. Afterwards we went outside and I took pictures with the kids. They can be so rambunctious but I love them so much. I hope I can come back and see them graduate from high school!
October 14 - Shari's 21st birthday. We showered, dressed up and went to Tide Table for dinner. I wished that I could wear jeans so bad! Maybe next time I'll wear them under my skirt haha. After dinner we went to the library and watched Surf's Up. The library has AC so I wore jeans in there. It felt so weird...
October 16 - Ben spoke for vespers and did a really good job. In part of his talk he mentioned how God sees us the way we see our students. We don't give them everything they want or make life easy because we don't love them. We do it because we do love them, and yet sometimes they're so hard headed and they don't understand. Afterwards we had another bonfire. (Yeah I know it's hot what are we thinking.) It felt good because there was a strong breeze and we didn't sit too close. Me and Alise made Damien his first ever s'more! The chocolate was sooo expensive but we decided to splurge.
Last night we went to Sylvia's house and she taught us how to make Marshallese plates out of palm branches. It was so neat! I'll try to post some pictures of it soon.
Thank you for your prayers everyone! The island is amazing and I'm loving every second I have here. It's so bloody hot but I don't even care. I'm having the time of my life.
Isaiah 26:3 - "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You."
I love it here!
I realize it's been about 4 weeks since I've written. That's probably due to the fact that I'm soaking up every minute here so much I've hardly been on the internet! But here is a brief (yeah right) update on the last month:
September 25 - This Friday we had no school because of Manit Day. (I think it's like a labor day maybe? I don't know I forget things.) Everybody gets together and sells food and people/kids do performances. So our gymnastics team was going to do a show there. It was supposed to start at 1pm, but it was pouring rain so it got delayed some. Then we were supposed to perform 2nd, but 3 other groups went ahead of us...and well you know how island time is. And apparently island performances too. But we finally got to go. And although the rain had let up, the hot, tropical sun beat down mercilessly.The show went good though. The guy coaches tossed me and I did a flare! It made me happy to do something gymnastical.
September 28 - Me and 3 other SMs started a little morning worship group. We go out and watch the sunrise and read our Bibles, pray, etc. If we read something cool we can share it with the group. It's a pretty amazing thing and it helps us keep each other accountable. The sunrise over the water is so incredible each morning. I'm going to miss that so much!
September 29 - At recess I'm massaging Shari's shoulders when I look left in mid-sentence and some lady starts breastfeeding out in the open. hahaha It was so hard to not scream and continue talking normally. LOL
September 30 - TSUNAMI WARNING! Some kids' parents actually came and took them out of school. Apparently we're supposed to go to the second story of the gym if there's a tsunami...hahaha really? If there's a tsunami we're toast. We live on a sandbar you can hardly see on a map. But we practiced our "fire drill"/tsunami drill. (The alarm is hitting the gas tank hahaha). Nothing happened all day. Damien and Zac got on the roof of our apartments with their surfboards waiting for the wave of their life I guess hahaha. After school the swells were huge! I just stood on the rocks with my mouth hanging open. Of course the guys went out having the waves of their life beat them to a pulp. It was pretty amazing.
Sad story - My mom sent me a hard cover for my computer to PROTECT it. I put it on and then realized I hadn't wiped the dust off the inside, so I was trying to pry it off to no avail. I stuck my finger between the cover and the outside and pulled (but not too hard because I didn't want to break anything). Then I opened it up to discover I had cracked the screen by pushing from the outside. That's right I'm an idiot. Now I have to ship my computer home (so I'll be computerless for at least a month) and it's going to cost me. I went outside and cried. It was so terrible. But it is just a thing.
By now we've gone on a couple of dives. Today will be our third. The first time we went down about 40 feet. On the way in we got swarmed by a huge school of fish. One swam (haha I almost said flew) into my hand and I screamed into the regulator. (Can't you just imagine??) It was so cool. This last Thursday we went to a different part of the lagoon and saw heaps of jellyfish. Don't worry they're little blue guys that don't sting. We saw a whitish colored ray too. Unfortunately my right ear wouldn't equalize very well so I was in a bit of pain when we got back...I'm really hoping it'll be ok today! It doesn't help being slightly congested. Hopefully the drugs will help. :)
October 3 - Walking back from Payless we heard a little meow. Damien caught a little kitty and now the guys have adopted her. It was really hilarious when Tony had her on his lap and Alise says, "Uhh...I think she's pooping." In the most calm voice imaginable. In seconds Tony is covered in kitty diarrhea. LOL Ohhh I laughed soooo hard. He was amazingly calm about the whole situation.
October 4 - Trip to Laura! This is about a 45 minute drive from our school. The other end of the island and there's beach! We went for a few hours to just play and have fun. We snorkeled some, but the current was really strong, so we spent most of our time throwing the football.
October 5 - World Teacher's Day! We went to a convention they were having for the island teachers. They had a few speakers, but more importantly they had prize drawings! I won a free lunch for 2 at ENRA (MIR). So I was pretty excited. They had cash prizes (one was $200), and free tickets to anywhere in the islands. It was cool seeing other teachers.
Ok this is getting long so I'm going to continue in another blog. :)
September 25 - This Friday we had no school because of Manit Day. (I think it's like a labor day maybe? I don't know I forget things.) Everybody gets together and sells food and people/kids do performances. So our gymnastics team was going to do a show there. It was supposed to start at 1pm, but it was pouring rain so it got delayed some. Then we were supposed to perform 2nd, but 3 other groups went ahead of us...and well you know how island time is. And apparently island performances too. But we finally got to go. And although the rain had let up, the hot, tropical sun beat down mercilessly.The show went good though. The guy coaches tossed me and I did a flare! It made me happy to do something gymnastical.
September 28 - Me and 3 other SMs started a little morning worship group. We go out and watch the sunrise and read our Bibles, pray, etc. If we read something cool we can share it with the group. It's a pretty amazing thing and it helps us keep each other accountable. The sunrise over the water is so incredible each morning. I'm going to miss that so much!
September 29 - At recess I'm massaging Shari's shoulders when I look left in mid-sentence and some lady starts breastfeeding out in the open. hahaha It was so hard to not scream and continue talking normally. LOL
September 30 - TSUNAMI WARNING! Some kids' parents actually came and took them out of school. Apparently we're supposed to go to the second story of the gym if there's a tsunami...hahaha really? If there's a tsunami we're toast. We live on a sandbar you can hardly see on a map. But we practiced our "fire drill"/tsunami drill. (The alarm is hitting the gas tank hahaha). Nothing happened all day. Damien and Zac got on the roof of our apartments with their surfboards waiting for the wave of their life I guess hahaha. After school the swells were huge! I just stood on the rocks with my mouth hanging open. Of course the guys went out having the waves of their life beat them to a pulp. It was pretty amazing.
Sad story - My mom sent me a hard cover for my computer to PROTECT it. I put it on and then realized I hadn't wiped the dust off the inside, so I was trying to pry it off to no avail. I stuck my finger between the cover and the outside and pulled (but not too hard because I didn't want to break anything). Then I opened it up to discover I had cracked the screen by pushing from the outside. That's right I'm an idiot. Now I have to ship my computer home (so I'll be computerless for at least a month) and it's going to cost me. I went outside and cried. It was so terrible. But it is just a thing.
By now we've gone on a couple of dives. Today will be our third. The first time we went down about 40 feet. On the way in we got swarmed by a huge school of fish. One swam (haha I almost said flew) into my hand and I screamed into the regulator. (Can't you just imagine??) It was so cool. This last Thursday we went to a different part of the lagoon and saw heaps of jellyfish. Don't worry they're little blue guys that don't sting. We saw a whitish colored ray too. Unfortunately my right ear wouldn't equalize very well so I was in a bit of pain when we got back...I'm really hoping it'll be ok today! It doesn't help being slightly congested. Hopefully the drugs will help. :)
October 3 - Walking back from Payless we heard a little meow. Damien caught a little kitty and now the guys have adopted her. It was really hilarious when Tony had her on his lap and Alise says, "Uhh...I think she's pooping." In the most calm voice imaginable. In seconds Tony is covered in kitty diarrhea. LOL Ohhh I laughed soooo hard. He was amazingly calm about the whole situation.
October 4 - Trip to Laura! This is about a 45 minute drive from our school. The other end of the island and there's beach! We went for a few hours to just play and have fun. We snorkeled some, but the current was really strong, so we spent most of our time throwing the football.
October 5 - World Teacher's Day! We went to a convention they were having for the island teachers. They had a few speakers, but more importantly they had prize drawings! I won a free lunch for 2 at ENRA (MIR). So I was pretty excited. They had cash prizes (one was $200), and free tickets to anywhere in the islands. It was cool seeing other teachers.
Ok this is getting long so I'm going to continue in another blog. :)
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